the coolest weekend EVER
So this weekend..
Friday was spent with the silly Aryan poster boy who is waaaay too smart for his own good, but still manages to be pretty socially apt and fun to talk to. Durandal, I swear you and this guy are long lost twins or something, except you do math and he does languages. Creepy. He even has the exact same bump on the nose and intones sarcastic comments in enough of a similar way that I still occasionnally call him the wrong name and then turn around to find a very surprised other person.
Anyway, we didnt want to go shopping with the girls so we just went out for drinks, which in morocco means juice. We have this fantastic juice bar thing here, where unlike in America, there are no offers of protien or energy boosters. Instead there are offers of ice cream in your banana, pear, peach, mango, orange, or what have you juice. And pastries.
Saturday, Londener girl, Aryan poster boy, and I went to Volubulis and Meknes. Volubulis is an incredible site of Roman ruins, and unlike in most places, the mosaics have not been moved and are still on the floors of the baths and houses. It cant hold a candle to Pompeii, but then, it couldn't when both cities were still active either, being out in the "ass end of Rome," as the classics buff announced. It was quite hot, but an adventure to get to and worth seeing. Poster Boy kept trying to read random inscriptions which usually turned out to be quite boring.. Then the taxi driver tried to stiff us on the return trip, demanding twenty extra dollars when he knew full well the agreed on price. That was annoying, but enh. We just got out of the cab.
There was the possibility of camel meat for lunch as well, which we decided to pass on, not having strong enough guts for unrefridgerated strange meat.
After lunch we went to this art museum which, while pictured as great in the Handy Dandy Guidebook, was really a delapidated palace filled with carpets and no other people.
LG and I were pretty overheated and so we laid down on the floor of the stone courtyard....and APB laughed when one of us rolled over and said, why dont you roll across the whole floor.
So, we rolled across the whole floor of the art museum. Then we posed on it, laying down. We have pictures, hehehe!
The security guard got angry when we told a questioning tourist thinking about visitng that it was just a lot of carpets on the way out.
Then we went to see the mausoleum of a Very Bad Man. It was a very beautiful mausoleum, though, even if he was an evil emperor who liked to lop off heads at will and use kidnapped Brits for labor. We had to take our shoes off and we actually sat in a niche for awhile planning the next move, which turned out to be tea followed by train home.
Sunday:
Medina Day!
So today was spent in the old city, after a rocky start which involved APB losing his key, having no money, LG being already asleep and me finding a pillow so the poor guy could sleep on the floor. Apparently he wasnt bothered, slept better than I did with a strange person on the floor.
So the next morning LG and I had a lovely decadent cafe breakfast (OJ, pain au chocolat, cafe au lait), while APB went back home and showered, changed, etc.
Then we went to the old city, where we spent many hours bargaining items down to half the offered price, dirnking tea, and conversing.
The highlights:
LG bought a camel ottoman through all three of us discussing the slow season of summer, how it really was unfortunant that we had no money, that we didnt mean to be insulting but really we just couldnt pay that price, maybe we should leave and come back later and see if any other buyers had turned up, etc
Then LG bought some table linens through another lengthy sit down. Highlight was us pulling out the London bombing and the fact that LGs and my family (I was british) were still alive, Praise be to Allah, and we were buying them a gift. I solemnly announced that the bombing were Not Islam, a religion of generosity and almsgiving. The owner just as solemnly agreed.
Then we bargained down an incredibly lavish meal bc there was no one else in the restaurant at that point and ten mins later a huge gaggle of tourists walked in! hooray for timing. We had a great lunch and the waiter took me up to the roof under the pretext of showing me the ladies room and proposed. Ugh.
Tried to pretend APB was my husband to get out of it but he didnt catch on so maybe I hit on protective brother instead.
Then there was the carpet shop, wherein LG faked an allergy to camel hair to get us out money in place!
Next was the Store of Coolness, Perle du Rif, wherein we met a Berber Jewish man who gave us tea, and showed us his uber neat items. I bought myself and B our present, bargained down from about 300 US to 140.
APB bought a 100 dollar dagger for about 90. Dunno why he gave up so soon. By the end of mine the guy was announcing that I must not only be Jewish but Berber as well (native Moroccans, supposedly uber thrifty).
Then we went home, exhausted. We must have spent an average of an hour and a half on each purchase....and two on lunch!
Friday was spent with the silly Aryan poster boy who is waaaay too smart for his own good, but still manages to be pretty socially apt and fun to talk to. Durandal, I swear you and this guy are long lost twins or something, except you do math and he does languages. Creepy. He even has the exact same bump on the nose and intones sarcastic comments in enough of a similar way that I still occasionnally call him the wrong name and then turn around to find a very surprised other person.
Anyway, we didnt want to go shopping with the girls so we just went out for drinks, which in morocco means juice. We have this fantastic juice bar thing here, where unlike in America, there are no offers of protien or energy boosters. Instead there are offers of ice cream in your banana, pear, peach, mango, orange, or what have you juice. And pastries.
Saturday, Londener girl, Aryan poster boy, and I went to Volubulis and Meknes. Volubulis is an incredible site of Roman ruins, and unlike in most places, the mosaics have not been moved and are still on the floors of the baths and houses. It cant hold a candle to Pompeii, but then, it couldn't when both cities were still active either, being out in the "ass end of Rome," as the classics buff announced. It was quite hot, but an adventure to get to and worth seeing. Poster Boy kept trying to read random inscriptions which usually turned out to be quite boring.. Then the taxi driver tried to stiff us on the return trip, demanding twenty extra dollars when he knew full well the agreed on price. That was annoying, but enh. We just got out of the cab.
There was the possibility of camel meat for lunch as well, which we decided to pass on, not having strong enough guts for unrefridgerated strange meat.
After lunch we went to this art museum which, while pictured as great in the Handy Dandy Guidebook, was really a delapidated palace filled with carpets and no other people.
LG and I were pretty overheated and so we laid down on the floor of the stone courtyard....and APB laughed when one of us rolled over and said, why dont you roll across the whole floor.
So, we rolled across the whole floor of the art museum. Then we posed on it, laying down. We have pictures, hehehe!
The security guard got angry when we told a questioning tourist thinking about visitng that it was just a lot of carpets on the way out.
Then we went to see the mausoleum of a Very Bad Man. It was a very beautiful mausoleum, though, even if he was an evil emperor who liked to lop off heads at will and use kidnapped Brits for labor. We had to take our shoes off and we actually sat in a niche for awhile planning the next move, which turned out to be tea followed by train home.
Sunday:
Medina Day!
So today was spent in the old city, after a rocky start which involved APB losing his key, having no money, LG being already asleep and me finding a pillow so the poor guy could sleep on the floor. Apparently he wasnt bothered, slept better than I did with a strange person on the floor.
So the next morning LG and I had a lovely decadent cafe breakfast (OJ, pain au chocolat, cafe au lait), while APB went back home and showered, changed, etc.
Then we went to the old city, where we spent many hours bargaining items down to half the offered price, dirnking tea, and conversing.
The highlights:
LG bought a camel ottoman through all three of us discussing the slow season of summer, how it really was unfortunant that we had no money, that we didnt mean to be insulting but really we just couldnt pay that price, maybe we should leave and come back later and see if any other buyers had turned up, etc
Then LG bought some table linens through another lengthy sit down. Highlight was us pulling out the London bombing and the fact that LGs and my family (I was british) were still alive, Praise be to Allah, and we were buying them a gift. I solemnly announced that the bombing were Not Islam, a religion of generosity and almsgiving. The owner just as solemnly agreed.
Then we bargained down an incredibly lavish meal bc there was no one else in the restaurant at that point and ten mins later a huge gaggle of tourists walked in! hooray for timing. We had a great lunch and the waiter took me up to the roof under the pretext of showing me the ladies room and proposed. Ugh.
Tried to pretend APB was my husband to get out of it but he didnt catch on so maybe I hit on protective brother instead.
Then there was the carpet shop, wherein LG faked an allergy to camel hair to get us out money in place!
Next was the Store of Coolness, Perle du Rif, wherein we met a Berber Jewish man who gave us tea, and showed us his uber neat items. I bought myself and B our present, bargained down from about 300 US to 140.
APB bought a 100 dollar dagger for about 90. Dunno why he gave up so soon. By the end of mine the guy was announcing that I must not only be Jewish but Berber as well (native Moroccans, supposedly uber thrifty).
Then we went home, exhausted. We must have spent an average of an hour and a half on each purchase....and two on lunch!